Saturday, March 12, 2011

So the topic of same-sex marriage has been in the news around the DC area almost every night for the past couple of weeks now as Maryland was looking at passing a bill to allow it. It was voted down this past Friday but that's neither here nor there.

What I want to address is that we as a nation are missing the point entirely in my estimation! I'm not going to argue for or against gay rights- nope. But I am going to argue for MARRIAGE! We've done a great job destroying the essence of it in my short time here on earth. Maybe I'm more aware as the years increase but the sentiment against it seems to grow everyday. You see celebrities, politicians and neighbors alike toss it aside as if they're in a casual dating relationship; not in a God-ordained covenant life long committment to the other as it was designed to be. So here's what I suggest:

Because we all should be able to designate who can speak for us legally, than everyone, ALL OF US, should have a civil union when we choose a partner. Gay, straight, bi . . . whatever. It would be strictly a legally binding agreement between two people for health and financial reasons. Sounds transactional you say? You're dang right! Why should it carry any more weight than that if people aren't approaching it the way it should be and can't agree on who should be allowed to take part? We're just dragging the whole ship down and leaving a whole generation completely at a loss when they are trying to identify what a healthy one looks like. BUT, those of us that want to be recognized as married, BEYOND the civil union, should do so in the church; the state should have no part. I'm all for keeping the beaurocratic mess out of marriage!

But before you go completely beserk on me and cry, "LIBERAL!!!!" think about it. Everyone should have somebody they can have as their legal guardian/partner/pal etc. I don't care if you believe being gay is wrong. But not everyone, even straight people, should get married. As a believer, I recognize that the marriage (not the civil union) I stepped into with Nat was a vow between God, myself and Natalie, with our families as witnesses. We stood before Him and two became one. Yes, the state recognized us as unified but they only cared about it because of tax returns and other junk. They don't give two cents about the God part. It may say it on some document but that's as far as it goes.

I know this would be too much for many people. Letting go of the word "marriage" would just be too big of an obstacle but I honestly believe that in order to save/identify what a true marriage is we need to set aside the word "marriage."